1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hypo-allergenic moss oil and a process for producing the same. The moss oil used herein means an extracted oil obtained by the extraction from epiphytic moss on the bark of trees and generally includes, for example, oakmoss oil, treemoss oil, cedarmoss oil, and moss oils produced in China.
2. Description of the Related Art
Oakmoss, Mousse de chene (Evernia Prunastri L. Ach.) was used for baking bread in ancient Egypt and also widely used as a universal panacea in the East during the 12th century.
Oakmoss is now recognized as an important perfume starting material and that oil is extremely widely used for the compound perfume of odor products, cosmetics, soaps, and detergents, similarly, Treemoss, Mousse d'arbre (Evernia furfuracea L. Mann) and cedarmoss are widely used as starting materials similar to oakmoss. Recently, moss produced in China, Evernia mesormopha, and Cetrariastrum nepalensis are being used in the same application fields.
Moss oil is indispensable for constituting the so-called chypre type fragrances and is also frequently used for a base note providing the volume and richness. It is reported in Monographs on Fragrance Raw Materials; Edited by D. L. Opdyke, Pergamon Press (1979) that moss oil is used in the United States in an amount of about 50 tons/year (i.e., oakmoss oil: 34 tons/year, treemoss oil: 16 tons/year).
However, it is reported in, for example, I. Dahlquist, S. Fregert: Contact allergy to atranorin in lichens and perfumes, Contact Dermatitis, 6,111 (1980); P. Thune, Y. Solberg et al: Perfume allergy due to oakmoss and other lichens, Contact Dermatitis, 8,396 (1982); and M. Sandberg, P. Thune: The sensitizing capacity of atranorin, Contact Dermatitis, 11,168 (1984) that moss oils cause positive reactions in patients with cosmetic contact dermatitis. The present inventors conducted allergenicity tests with respect to commercially available moss oils and confirmed, as shown in Comparative Example 1 hereinbelow, that the commercially available moss oils have a very very strong allergenicity.